To non-smokers, the smell of cigarette smoke is at the least often unpleasant, and may in some instances be actually nauseating. The Surgeon General has determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to one's health, and indeed it has been said that even long exposure to smoke-filled atmospheres desirably should be avoided. Much of the smoke emanating from a cigarette is generated while the cigarette is not actually being smoked, as when the cigarette is resting in an ashtray. If even the smoke generated by a cigarette resting in an ashtray could be kept from escaping into a room, the concentration of smoke in the room could be substantially reduced. A reduction in the smoke level in an office or other room, besides providing an obvious health benefit, would also render the room less offensive to a non-smoking visitor.
A variety of ashtrays have been proposed to reduce the amount of smoke escaping into the air from cigarettes or cigars resting in the ashtrays; exemplary of these are the ashtrays shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,029,192; 2,788,085 and 3,797,205. None of these ashtrays, to the best of our knowledge, have become successful from a commercial standpoint, and one of the reasons for this may be that such ashtrays are rather difficult to clean, or may be bulky and cumbersome and thus not aesthetically pleasing, or may be noisy.
An ashtray which would capture the smoke from a cigarette resting thereon and treat the smoke so as to remove odors and other material therefrom, and which would additionally be easily cleaned, aesthetically pleasing and substantially silent, is greatly to be desired.